Don’t create situations for citizens to file civil contempt cases: High Court

BENGALURU: Pointing to a large number of civil contempt of court cases (CCC) being filed, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday said that a situation should not be created for a citizen to file these cases. It said the state government needs to set up machinery to ensure its officers implement the court orders to avoid such cases.

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty passed the order while asking the state whether it was willing to appoint nodal officers to ensure the implementation of court orders. While hearing the contempt petitions, the bench said the citizens were put to loss in two ways by the officers not implementing the court orders.

Firstly, they will not get the benefit of the court orders. Secondly, they have to spend money on the proceedings, the bench said. “It is the government’s duty to ensure its officers abide by the court orders,” the bench said. The bench also highlighted the problems of the officers, who are arraigned as accused in such cases. The accused officers too don’t benefit as instead of doing their regular work, they are required to give attention to CCC proceedings.